Spirit of Fire

Chapter 4: Welcome to Ba Sing Se

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender

Things had been interesting for Zuko ever since he and Iroh were able to escape the two bounty hunters in the Si Wong Desert. They had to spend nearly a day hiding in the large urns. It wasn't so bad, since Zuko was able to get more meditating done and was able to complete another ten levels of training; this in turn allowed him to summon blue fire, Azula's specialty. Sadly, meditating was the only thing he could do. Since they were hiding, Zuko couldn't talk until it was clear and with the way the trip was going so far, it didn't look like they would be clear anytime soon.

The young exiled prince was brought out of his musings as he felt the cart stop. A moment later the small tray of flowers was taken off the top; Zuko could also hear Heto say, "The coast is clear now."

Zuko and Iroh climbed out of the urns and saw that they were next to a large boulder set in a grassy field. "I hope the ride wasn't too uncomfortable for you both," said Heto. "I can take you both as far as Full Moon Bay which is about five miles from here, but once there I'll need to return to the Si Wong Desert. From Full Moon Bay, you will travel across the lake by ferry and meet up with our contacts in Ba Sing Se."

"Thank you very much Heto," replied Iroh.

Iroh waited a moment to see if his nephew would say anything. After not hearing anything for a moment, Iroh thought he'd have to remind Zuko about his manners when Zuko spoke up. "Thanks for the help," came the prince's reply. Okay, so it wasn't much, but it was better than what Iroh had originally thought Zuko was going to say. The three men then began walking to Full Moon Bay. Heto walked in front and Zuko and Iroh walk side-by-side behind him.

Zuko looked down as he noticed Iroh handing him some papers. "What's this?" he asked as he took the papers.

"Those are your passport papers. They have your alias on them and will allow us to hopefully get into the city," Iroh explained.

Zuko looked at the paper, taking note of what he would be called from now on. "My name's Mushi? That doesn't sound like a good alias, Uncle." Zuko commented.

"Oh, sorry about that nephew," Iroh said taking back the paper and handing Zuko the other paper. "Mushi is my alias, nephew. Your alias is Lee."

"Thanks. That sounds better."

"So, how was your time in the urn?" Iroh asked. He had thought the entire ride over that Zuko would have burst out of the urn.

"It was boring. I mostly mediated, when I couldn't sleep," replied Zuko.

"Did you do any of your training from Aoihi?"

"Yes, and look." Zuko said somewhat happily and he placed his closed hand in front of Iroh. Zuko then concentrated and slowly opened his hand.

To say Iroh was surprised, would have been an understatement. "Zuko, you can now summon blue fire?"

"Well, you're looking at it aren't you?" replied Zuko with his own question.

Iroh had to admit, he was watching. Zuko quickly extinguished the flames. "Very impressive, nephew, you have come a long way in a short amount of time."

"Thank you, Uncle. I hope that when the time comes this training will be enough to do what must be done," Zuko replied somberly.

The blood had stopped dripping off the ceiling hours ago. The stench of decay filled the air in the room, due to the decomposing remains of the slaughtered body. Of course, it was hard to call it a body when it had been ground up.

Two men looked on in well-concealed horror at the scenery of the room. Both of these men were tall and wore black pants under large dark green shirts. They were two members of an organization known as the Dai Li, the cultural authority of Ba Sing Se, who were tasked with keeping the traditions and overall peace of the city. Unfortunately, the scene before them was making it harder and harder to keep the peace.

"Do we know who it is, Quwan?" asked the rough voice of the first agent to his partner.

"It's Hu, Shilang," replied Quwan grimly or as grimly as someone who had been trained to kill their emotions could.

"How many does it make so far?" asked Shilang.

"Which one, our men or total deaths over all?" asked Quwan, as there was a difference.

"Both."

"We have now lost a total of forty-two men and the total murder count is one hundred and eight," came Quwan's answer.

"Long Feng isn't going to like that we haven't captured those responsible for these murders," commented Shilang indifferently.

"With all respect due to the Grand Secretariat, I don't think this is the work of a group," replied Quwan. "With how the murders have been done, if it was more than one person, someone would have talked by now."

"It doesn't matter; just so long as we keep this out of the public's knowledge."

"That is becoming harder and harder to do." Quwan said as they began to clean up what remained of the man once known as Hu. So as to not touch the ground flesh, then bent the earth and gathered up what remained. Once they had all they could get, Quwan and Shilang packed it together and held it in place with earth; forming a giant ball. They then lifted the corpse-filled ball of earth into the air and began to walk away.

Whoever this was that was committing these murders was without question one of the sickest individuals to ever walk the face of the Earth. It often made one wonder if the Fire Nation was a better place than being in a city where this person was free.

Yue stretched as she finished drying herself off after taking a nice soak in a warm tub of water. Yue walked over to the bathroom mirror and began to brush her hair. Once she had all of the tangles out, Yue took one of her knives and began to cut her hair. Truthfully, she didn't want to cut her hair, but it was too much of a hassle to fix every morning now that she was on her own. With the cutting finished, Yue's hair now only went down to just barely past her shoulders.

Yue then bent the remaining water off her hair and body. With careful bending she was able to freeze the cut strands of hair and dump them in the trash. Yue then quickly got dressed, putting on a pair of dark brown pants followed by a dark brown tunic that reached halfway down her thighs. If she was going to be hiding out in Ba Sing Se for a while, she needed to look the part. When she had arrived in her first Earth Kingdom town that was the first thing she bought, even before her ostrich-horse.

With her clothes now on, Yue pulled up her shirt revealing her finely-toned stomach and grabbed her set of throwing knives. The knives were stored in a holster that went around the stomach; allowing the wearer to withdraw the knives from under the small of his or her back. It was designed this way so that one could draw a knife without the intended target knowing. Also, who would think to look for a holster of throwing knives on the small of someone's back?

Once the knives were in place, Yue dropped her shirt and slid on her dark green light weight jacket robe to help hide the knives even more. She then opened the box her gauntlets were in and put them on, taking extra care to make sure the blades locked in place. With her knives and gauntlets on, Yue took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. 'Good-bye Yue and hello Kimiko,' thought Yue. The young princess then gathered her belongings and grabbed a quick breakfast, before checking herself out of the inn.

With her last minute preparations done, Yue went to the stables where her ostrich-horse was at and began to saddle him up. Once her mount was ready, Yue climbed onto her steed and rode out of the small town; heading in a northeastern direction to take her right to Ba Sing Se.

Aang sighed sadly to himself, he knew he should be happy that the sandbenders were still willing to help him and his friends after the anger that he had displayed when he destroyed their desert gliders, but without Appa nothing seemed to matter.

It was just supposed to be a simple trip into the Si Wong Desert and help Professor Zei find Wan Shi Tong's Library; while also, looking for information on the Fire Nation. However, once they had discovered that the Fire Nation did have a weakness Wan Shi Tong hadn't taken it so well. The knowledge spirit forced his library back into the spirit world and began attacking them. Luckily, they had been able to escape, but sadly when they escaped Aang learned that Appa had been stolen.

The rest of the day Aang took to the skies trying to find his stolen bison, but only found more and more desert. As evening fell, he returned to his friends angry and depressed. They continued walking long into the night and eventually stumbled upon an abandoned sandbender glider. They followed the glider's compass which took them to a very large rock. For the most part, the rock had been plain, until they went inside the cave at the top and realized that it wasn't a cave but a hive for vulture-wasps. Slowly the four friends were being out numbered but, just when it seemed that they were done for, help arrived. That help was in the form of sandbenders.

As they talked to the sandbenders Toph revealed that the sandbender by the name of, Ghashiun was the one who had stolen Appa. Upon hearing this Aang began to let his anger overtake him completely. Aang did the one thing the monks had always spoken out against; he let his anger rule him. The monks had always told him that anger would eventually lead to war and they were right; Aang was ready to go war against the sandbenders and not just the ones who took Appa, but all sandbenders. In the end, Katara was able to get him to calm down and Aang cried knowing that his last true link to his people was gone. Along with Appa being stolen and letting his anger rule him, there were still the champions that Roku had told him about to worry about; it had all just been too much to take.

When Aang had calmed down the sandbenders returned, still offering their help. Aang somberly accepted their help. Packing everyone onto the last glider, Sha-Mo the leader of the Tusken tribe of sandbenders and father of Ghashiun, guided them to the Tusken camp. After a long rest and getting something to eat, Sha-Mo explained exactly where in the desert they were. Once they were resupplied, Sha-Mo escorted them out of the desert towards its northern edge. They had just reached the edge and were currently disembarking from the sand gliders.

"Avatar Aang, are you sure you do not want to pass judgment on Ghashiun?" Sha-Mo asked as he approached the young Avatar.

Aang turned his head to the Tusken's leader and replied saying, "No, I should not pass judgment on him. I unjustly caused damages to your people and was willing to attack you. I have no right to judge. As leader of your people, I will leave Ghashiun's fate to you."

Sha-Mo bowed his head in respect of Aang's decision. With the stiff good-byes over the sandbenders turned to leave heading back to their home. Team Avatar then began walking hoping to find a campsite soon as evening was fast approaching them.

Zuko leaned back against the rock he was sitting against. He and Iroh had safely made it into Full Moon Bay and got their tickets. Now all Lee and Mushi had to do was wait until tomorrow when the ferries would be back to journey into Ba Sing Se. It shouldn't be too hard; all they had to do was keep their tickets from being stolen, make sure no one knew they were firebenders or from the Fire Nation, and not kill anyone.

Currently, Zuko and Iroh were settling in for the evening. As there wasn't a designated place to sleep, everyone was sleeping where they could find room. For Iroh and Zuko it was against the cavern's rock walls. Zuko was keeping quiet and to himself while Iroh had found some other old guys to talk tea and Pai Sho with.

'When will the nightmare of tea and Pai Sho ever end?' Zuko thought to himself.

"Excuse me, but is this spot taken?" asked a meek voice in front of Zuko.

Zuko looked up to see two young girls, roughly his age, standing in front of him. They were average in height and both of them had long black hair. The girl to his left had green eyes while the girl to his right brown eyes. The girl with the brown eyes was indicating to the spot next to him, obviously having been the one who spoke.

"No, the spot's free," replied Zuko.

"Thank you," replied the girl with green eyes; as the two girls made to sit down next to him. The girl with brown eyes sat next to him and the girl green eyes sat on her other side.

"My name's Miki and this is my sister, Miya." said the brown eyed girl; now known as Miki.

"Nice to meet you both, I'm Lee," said Zuko. "And, that's my uncle Mushi," he continued pointing to where Mushi was.

"Oh, you're traveling with your uncle to Ba Sing Se?" asked Miya.

"Yeah, he's the only family I've got left," answered Zuko.

"Sorry to hear that, we know how you feel," spoke Miki. "My sister and I are the only family we have left too."

With the small talk over the three refugees settled down for the night. The sleep would be uncomfortable, but at least it would be peaceful. As the hours passed, the cavern grew darker and darker until only a few soft candles provided the only light.

Zuko snapped wide awake as he felt something suddenly lean against him. Lifting up his head, he saw that Miki had slumped over and was leaning heavily on him, still sleeping softly. However, there was an odd round thing pressing against his arm.

'What is that?' Zuko asked himself as he moved his arm. Zuko's moving was brought to an abrupt halt as soft pleasurable moan escaped Miki's sleeping lips.

'That's her…' Zuko began to think, but quickly stopped; his face growing bright red. As gently and quickly as he could, Zuko leaned Miki the other way. Letting her lean against her sister. Seeing that she was still asleep, he let out a relieved sigh as he leaned back against the rock wall again.

"Enjoying yourself, nephew?" came Iroh's voice next to him.

Zuko jumped slightly in surprise, but luckily didn't shout. "Uncle! Don't do that!" growled Zuko.

Iroh chuckled softly at Zuko's response. "Come now, nephew. I was just making sure you behaved."

"Behaved?"

"You have been at sea for three years with little to no female interaction," replied Iroh. Seeing his nephew blush, Iroh decided to push it a little more. "Although, there was that time on your fourteenth birthday when we were at port in Taris and-" Iroh was quickly cut off by Zuko, who had snapped his hands over Iroh's mouth.

"I thought I said to never mention that night again." Zuko hissed.

Iroh chuckled once more and leaned back against the rock wall to sleep once more.

Zuko shook his head to clear away the thoughts in his head and waited for sleep to claim him once more.

It had been an easy, if a bit fast paced, day for Yue. After leaving the small town she had spent the night in, she rode her ostrich-horse until she reached the next town. This town was a bit larger, so she was able to get a cheap fifty-five gold piece deal for her ostrich-horse.

With her ostrich-horse gone, Yue had to walk a few miles until she was well out of the town's sight. As no one was supposed to know about her bending skills yet, Yue had to make sure it was kept secret for as long as possible. With the town now out of sight and no one around, Yue bent the water out of her two large water skins and formed a platform of ice. The platform was four feet wide and about seven inches deep. With the platform of ice stable, Yue climbed onto and anchored her feet to the platform. Yue then, raised herself high into the sky and took off for Ba Sing Se. Being a waterbender, she could make the water become solid by turning it into ice. After that, all she would have to do would be to just stand on the ice and bend it in the direction she wanted to go.

After nearly an hour of flying, Yue was walking around the streets of Ba Sing Se, the largest city in the world. It had been easy getting into the city. All she had to do was fly high above the walls of Ba Sing Se and once she was over the Lower Ring quickly descend down to the ground. People in general never look up often, but one couldn't be too careful. On the off chance that someone did look up, most of what they would have seen would have been to small to identify it and would have passed it off as a bird.

According to her map she was in the Firma District of the Lower Ring. Firma was one of the slightly better off areas of the Lower Ring. Yue or rather Kimiko, was able to find a decent apartment, there was an abundance of them, at a price of eight gold coins a day and was now happily living in the Deim Apartment Complex at apartment 308. Since there was still plenty of light left in the day, Yue wandered around the city or rather just around Firma and got a feel for the place as she learned where shops and restaurants were located.

Yue was now getting ready for bed, for tomorrow Kimiko would have a busy day looking for a job.

"We will now begin the simple lesson of flying," spoke the disembodied voice.

"Flight?" questioned Jin as she stood in the grassy field that was her mindscape. "I'm an earthbender not an airbender, so how can I fly?"

"Despite beliefs of the last couple of thousands years, all benders can fly to some degree. For an earthbender, you need to only make yourself a platform of earth and then anchor yourself to the hovering earth. Once this is accomplished, it is only a simple matter directing the earth were you want to go."

Following the instructions, Jin anchored her feet to the ground; bending the earth over her feet and making it hold firmly to her shins. As carefully as she could, Jin broke the earth into a small firm platform around her anchored feet. With the platform free, Jin moved the earth up into the air and by default herself as well.

'Okay, this is definitely new,' Jin thought to herself as she saw that she was several feet above the ground. For several more hours she practiced, making sure to get the feeling of flying down until she was able to do it without thinking.

Jin opened her eyes as she came out of her mediation and stretched for a moment. Once her muscles were relaxed, she shifted into an earthbending stance and anchored her feet to the ground. She then carefully bent the earth around her anchored feet into a platform and broke it away from the ground. Jin rose into the air slowly, as to not hit her head on the ceiling. 'I'm going to have a lot of fun with this,' Jin thought as she hovered back and forth above the ground. After a few more minutes of hovering around her pit, Jin bent the platform back into the ground.

Using her Seismic Sense and sensing no one above her, Jin bent her pit closed as she raised herself up on a column of earth and opened the ceiling above her. Going through the hole in the ceiling lead her to where she had been when she had entered her pit, the house closet. Jin exited the closet and headed for the kitchen to see what her mother was fixing for dinner.

Jin pushed open the door to the kitchen and saw her raven haired mother at the stove. "Hey Mom, what's for dinner?" she asked.

"Hello Jin. We are having Rabbaroo stew for supper," replied Xain. Turning her golden eyes to her eldest child Xain asked, "Could you please check on the triplets for me and let them know supper will be ready soon?"

"Sure mom," Jin replied as she exited the kitchen and headed upstairs. Her family lived in a small shabby three story house. On the first floor was the kitchen, the living room/dining room, the house closet, the bathroom, and her parents' room. The second floor held rooms of Tida, Routa and the triplets, who were named Maro, Kane, and Zena. With the triplets being the youngest members of the house at five years old, they all slept in the same room. Which was good because the family wasn't ready for a move; nor did they have the money to make a move. Plus, trying to find a place would be a nightmare. The third floor held the rooms of Lin, Shi, and her own room.

As Jin came upon the door to the triplets' room she could hear the three of them talking inside.

"We have ta tell mommy and daddy," came the voice of Zena.

"Nos. You know what mommy said abouts that," replied the urgent voice of her brother Maro.

"If mommy or daddy ever finds out, they won't love us," spoke up the last of the triplets, Kane.

'What are the three ankle biters talking about?' Jin thought to herself. She knew that as their older sister she could easily find out, but in a house as small as there's getting to have and keep something to yourself was a very rare thing.

Going against her better judgment, Jin decided to let her youngest siblings keep their little secret. Jin banged hard on the door and shouted, "Hey you three it's almost supper time. Go wash up."

As she turned to head back downstairs, Jin took notice of the hall candle. 'Huh, the candle seems brighter than usual. I wonder if these are the new candles dad got with the supposedly brighter burning wick?' She asked herself. 'Oh well no time to think about that; there's supper to be eaten.'

Jin softly hummed to herself as she walked down the stairs.

Zuko awoke feeling himself being shaken. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was Iroh who had awakened him.

"Wake up, Lee. The ferries are here it's time for us to board," Iroh told him.

Zuko stood up, popping the kinks out of his spine as he did so from the previous night's sleep. The two men then made their way towards the ferry on the right. It took awhile to get everyone on board, but the ferry was pulling out just before lunch.

"Who would have thought, after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace …As a tourist," commented Iroh somberly until the end where he finished by putting on his straw hat and grinning.

Zuko rolled his eyes at his uncle's actions. He loved the man, but sometimes Iroh made it hard not to want to kill him. "Look around, we're not tourists, we're refugees," countered Zuko. He looked down at the murky green slop that was supposed to pass as food on the ferry. 'Ugh, even the prisoners in the Fire Nation eat better than this.'

Taking a small sip of the food, Zuko immediately spit it back out due to the foul taste. "I'm sick of eating rotten food."

"Aren't we all," came an agreeable voice.

Zuko turned around to see a guy roughly his own size and height with a mop of messy brown hair leaning against one of the ferry's posts.

"My name's Jet, and these are my freedom fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot." the teen said introducing himself and his companions.

"Hey." said the short teen with red facial markings who had been identified as Smellerbee. Longshot, who had a quiver of arrows strapped to his back, just nodded in his greeting.

"Hello," Zuko replied in greeting to all three of them.

"Here's the deal, I hear the captain's eating like a king; while us refugees have to feed off his scraps. Doesn't seem fair does it?" asked Jet.

"What sort of 'king' is he eating like?" Iroh asked the teen.

"The fat, happy kind," replied Jet. He then looked back at Zuko and asked, "You want to help us 'liberate' some?"

Zuko looked down at the bowl he was holding and thought to himself, 'I've got a bad feeling about this, but…' He then threw the bowl over and turned to face Jet and said, "I'm in."

Yue huffed to herself as she walked back to her apartment in the setting sun. She had been to six, six different places and not a one of them hired her or even bothered to give her the courtesy of a pity interview.

'I never thought living in a city could be so hard,' Yue thought to herself. 'Well, tomorrow's another day.'

Aang sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the left half of Serpent's Lake. Earlier that day he and the rest of Team Avatar had met up with some refugees heading to Full Moon Bay to take the ferries into Ba Sing Se. However, due to an unfortunate loss of their passports, the refugees had been denied access to the ferries. Aang told them not to worry as he would guide them across the Serpent's Pass. They were able to cover a lot of ground that day and had made it a bit over half-way across the deadly pass. Now, everyone was getting ready to go to sleep as they would have a busy day tomorrow completing the rest of the journey.

As he continued to stare out at the lake, Aang was caught by surprise as a voice spoke to him. "Hello Aang."

Aang's eyes widened as he was brought out of his deep thinking by the voice. Looking in the direction of the source of the voice Aang replied saying, "Hello Roku."

"I see that you are in pain young Avatar over the loss of your bison, but I have some news that might lessen some of the stress on your shoulders," spoke the former Avatar.

"Thank you, Roku. What news do you bring?"

"I have been able to get more information on the three champions."

"Any idea who they are?"

"I'm sorry, but no. The elder spirits are being rather tight lipped about that. But I was able to learn where the three are headed and what their mission is," Roku answered. "The three are headed for Ba Sing Se. Two of the champions are in the city now and the third will be in the city soon. The three of them, are unaware of who their fellow champions are, but know that they exist. Their mission is in two parts for most of the champions. All three of them must complete a primary mission and most of them also have a secondary mission to complete. I know what the primary mission of the champions is, but I am unaware of the secondary missions. The primary mission is to stop the war."

"That's what I'm doing. It's my destiny to stop this war."

"The elders feel that when the time comes you will not be up to the task. The champions were chosen as a back-up plan."

Aang frowned slightly at this. Why wouldn't he be able to fulfill his destiny?

"I leave you now to think on what I have told you," Roku said as he faded from Aang's sight.

Sokka sat away from the group's camp looking up at the bright full moon.

"It's a beautiful moon," commented a voice next to him softly.

Already knowing who it was, Sokka turned his head towards Suki to reply to her. "Yeah, it is."

"Look, I know you're just trying to help, but I can take care of myself," Suki began as she sat next to him.

"I know you can."

"Then why are you acting so overprotective?" Suki questioned him.

"It's hard to lose someone you care about or you think you care about," he replied as his gaze turned towards the lake. "Something happened at the North Pole and I couldn't protect someone. I don't want anything like that to ever happen again."

"I lost someone I cared about once," Suki spoke thoughtfully. "He didn't die, he just went away. I only had a few days to get to know him, but he was smart, brave, and funny."

"Who is this guy?" Sokka asked as he stood up. "Is he taller than me?"

"No, he's about your height." Suki replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"Is he better looking?"

With a small laugh in her voice, she replied saying, "It is you, stupid!"

"Oh…" Sokka responded with a small blush on his cheeks.

Suki stood up next to him and looked deeply into Sokka's eyes as he looked into hers. The two teens drew their faces closer together, slightly parting their lips as they connected for their first passionate kiss.

A moment later that felt like an eternity later they broke apart and once more gazed into the soul filled eyes of each other.

"That was nice," said Sokka breaking the silence.

"Just nice?" questioned Suki.

"Okay fine, it was the single best experience I've had since I left the South Pole," Sokka corrected. "I only said it was nice, so I wouldn't sound so clichéd."

"Actually, it's much better. It's you," Suki then leaned forward giving Sokka one last kiss before walking back to the camp, but not without makeing sure he took notice of her rhythmically swaying hips.

Iroh stood on the deck of the ferry overlooking the water. Ever since the events of the North Pole; things had been happening one after the other leaving little time to meditate on the things that had recently occurred. His nephew had been hastened into making a deal with the elder spirit of fire and was now tasked with not only balancing the world, but also tasked with a harsh fate to save the lives of his people. It may be legal to do by Fire Nation customs, but only because it had been needed ages past. The thought of it being needed now was a deep shock to the system.

"Do you think I am cruel, old dragon?" asked a fiery sounding voice next to him.

Iroh turned to see a blue skinned female standing next to him, just above his now sleeping nephew. "You are the elder spirit?" he inquired.

"I am, old dragon." Aoihi replied. "Now, do you think I am cruel?"

"It is hard to say, spirit. It is a task that must be done if the war is to ever truly be over, but to have someone end the life of their direct blood family is a dire request to make."

"So, it would be better to allow them to live? To continue the work of Sozin? And what of the girl, who would burn the fire just as much as the air, water, and earth?"

"That is why I have yet to say it was cruel of you, elder spirit," replied Iroh. He then looked done at his nephew somberly and then shifted his gaze back up at Aoihi. "He'll do as you have asked of him spirit, if that is what concerns you. He may hate it and after he does it, he may spend the rest of his days cursing you, but he will do it."

"I know he will, I'm just waiting to see your reaction, old dragon," said Aoihi as she faded from view.

Just as Aoihi finished disappearing back to the Spirit World, Zuko was roused from his slumber. "Uncle, what are you looking at? Is there something out there?" Zuko asked sleepily.

"It is nothing nephew. Go back to sleep," Iroh replied.

Shrugging his shoulders, Zuko laid his head back down and a moment later was asleep once again.

Sweat dipped steadily down Jin's face as she concentrated. She was standing in her mindscape again trying to perfect the highest form of earthbending known as bonebending. The bones in the human body were made up of minerals and minerals were part of the earth. Therefore, she should be able to control the movement of people. The only problem was doing it so that no bones were broken in any way. In her mindscape she could call upon whatever sort of sparring partner or training dummy she wanted, so Jin had called upon a skeleton and set it so that if I bone was broken a new training skeleton would appear. At last count, Jin had gone through sixty-nine skeletons. Needless to say, she was getting tired.

Just as she was about to step out of her mindscape, the realm wavered and Kiirojimen appeared in front of her.

"Is something wrong, Kiirojimen?" Jin asked the elder spirit.

"It is time for one of the champions to come forth to establish a sign of peace that we haven't called upon the champions to destroy the young airbender. You have been chosen to be that champion. When you exit from your mindscape, you will find a set of clothes next to you. Put them on, they are to help conceal your identity; for now," Kiirojimen explained to his champion. "You will find the Avatar and his companions on Serpent's Pass. You are to go there and connect them across from the path that starts to go underwater to the path that continues on the other side. Remember, do not reveal your identity; simply let the Avatar know that the champions are in Ba Sing Se."

"The others are here?" Jin asked. "When will we meet?"

"In two weeks time the champions will meet." With his final words spoken, Kiirojimen faded out of Jin's mindscape.

With the spirit's instructions in mind, Jin left her mindscape. Jin opened her eyes to find herself sitting in her pit. As she looked around, she saw that the clothes Kiirojimen had spoken of were placed next to her on her right, neatly folded.

'So, this is it?' Jin asked herself as she picked up the outfit and looked at it. 'Let the change begin.' Jin then quickly shed her clothes and placed on the new clothes. Once she was finished she looked down at herself. 'Not bad.'

"I'm coming Avatar," Jin spoke aloud as she opened a hole beneath herself and began bending herself through the earth with rapid speed and grace.

The members of Team Avatar, along with the refugees they were escorting, walked quietly along the narrow path of Serpent's Pass. They had awoken early that morning and were making good time. As they walked down the steep slope of the path they suddenly stopped; as the path they were walking on suddenly ended, leading straight into Serpent's Lake.

"What do we do now?" Suki asked. They could see that the path continued on the other side of the water. But it wasn't like they could all swim across the water to reach it.

"Everyone single file," Katara said as she began to bend the water away.

"Wait, what's that?" Sokka cried as he pointed towards the sky.

Everyone, except Toph, looked to where he was pointing and was puzzled as they saw what appeared to be a hooded figure standing on a floating piece of earth. The figure wore what looked like dark green armor and a black hooded cloak. The edging of the hood was green. The figure's mouth was also hidden by a green veil. (A/N: Imagine the outfit looking like Altaïr's assassin outfit; from the game Assassin's Creed, but it's black and green instead of white and red.)

Without warning the figure suddenly moved; thrusting their arms high into the air. The ground below Team Avatar began to shake and the group watched as earth erupted from the water; continuing the path in the form of a new peak along Serpent's Pass. As everyone stared in wonder at what had happened, the air was pierced by a deafening screech as the water on the left side of the group erupted.

Shooting out of the water was a giant monster, the obvious reason why the path was called Serpent's Pass, unlike anything the young travelers had ever seen. The large green sea serpent lunged towards the floating figure. The hooded figure thrust out their right arm hard and without seeming to touch the serpent; sent the creature flying, causing it to hit the water hard.

"Whoa," was all Katara could say about what had happened.

"I'm going to find out who they are," stated Aang as he released the wings of his glider.

As Aang flew towards the floating person, a rock platform broke off from the newly risen earth and floated up towards the figure; stopping just a couple of yards in front of the unknown earthbender. Presuming the rock was for him to stand on, Aang pulled out of his flight and landed on the floating earth. Being closer to the hidden bender, Aang could tell that certain noticeable anatomy features indicated that the hooded person was female.

"Who are you?" Aang asked directly.

"Is it not obvious to you?" she responded with her own question. "I am the champion of earth."

Her voice was soft and yet firm as hard as iron ore. Unlike Toph's who was more along the lines of hard and harsh sounding most of the time. 'Toph might have met her match with this bender,' Aang thought to himself.

"Are you and the other champions here to fight me?" Aang asked

"No. We have been ordered with different tasks to do."

"Why did you help me?"

"I was told by the elder spirits to do so. You have more pressing matters to address then a hungry sea serpent," replied the champion. "I will take my leave of you." The champion then turned around and sped off on their platform of earth.

The earth under Aang's feet shook as it began to break apart. He quickly jumped into the air and summoned his glider, to chase after the earth champion.

Just as he was coming upon her, the champion hurled down to earth and bent the ground into swallowing her.

Aang landed a moment later and placed his hand on the ground to sense where she was in the ground. His eyes opened as he realized that she wasn't within his sensing range. 'That's fast,' he thought to himself thinking of the speed of which she bent the earth.

He jumped into the air once again and began flying back to his friends.

'I can't believe I met the Avatar.' Jin thought to herself as she bent the earth around her. 'Although, he did seem rather… childish for being the Avatar. I mean really, walking under the water? That's just foolish. Bending up the earth from under the water like I did would have been a better thing to do. No wonder Kiirojimen wanted me to go and help him. If I hadn't, he probably would have had to fight the sea serpent.'

As she neared the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se, Jin stopped her bending as she felt massive vibrations surge through the earth. 'What was that?' She asked herself as she bent the earth to bring her up to the ground.

Once out of the earth, Jin gasped as she beheld the sight of monstrosity in front of her. 'Spirits above, that's big. When I told the Avatar he had pressing matters to address this isn't what I had in mind.'

The sheer size of the drill was impressive enough alone. 'Never let it be said that the Fire Nation lacks imagination. Now, the question is do I interfere or not?' Shifting her gaze back to where Serpent's Pass lay and then to the Outer Wall, Jin reached her decision as she settled once more on the drill. 'I don't think I will. I want to see how the Avatar plans to handle this.'

Bending up a comfortable chair of earth, Jin sat down and waited for the show to start.

'I am so glad I'm off work today.'

The small ferry sailed slowly through the thick morning fog, nearing its destination. Zuko was standing at the bow of the ferry searching through the fog for the first signs of the legendary city, Ba Sing Se.

"You know, as soon as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were," came Jet's voice to his left.

It took every ounce of self-control Zuko had to keep his face neutral. Deep inside, he wanted to attack the Earth Kingdom citizen and throw him overboard. After all, Zuko couldn't risk anyone discovering who he and his uncle were; just yet.

"You're an outcast, like me, and us outcasts have to stick together. We have to watch each other's backs, because no one else will," Jet finished.

Deep inside the recesses of his mind, Zuko was breathing a large sigh of relief. 'Thank the spirits he doesn't really know,' the exiled prince thought to himself. "I've realized lately, that being on your own isn't always the best path," Zuko spoke in a grim sagely voice; praying he sounded wise.

In the distance, Zuko could see the rocky cliffs emerging through the mist and just beyond them stood the Outer Wall.

Yue, or rather Kimiko, was quietly walking down the street to her next possible job interview. Yue had found a flyer earlier that was advertising for help at a bar called, Virgo. The bar was located in the Middle Ring.

After a few more minutes of walking, Yue found the bar. The building was rather plain looking, it was of the same stony texture as its neighboring buildings. Virgo was only two stories tall with a sign that had the bar's name on it. The roof was a nice green tiled.

'It looks nice,' Yue thought to herself as she approached the door of the bar. As she opened the thick polished wooden door, Yue could see that the inside was also plain. Booths lined the walls, except on the right. To the right was a stage, most likely for a band or performer. Directly in front of her was the bar and scattered throughout the large room were tables for various customers to sit and drink at.

Standing behind the bar was a tall slender woman with tanned skin and brown hair. She was wearing a dark green tunic and had a dish rag in her hand as she and with it cleaned the glass she was holding in her other hand.

"Are you, Kyine?" Yue asked as she approached the bar. The flyer had said to ask for the owner, Kyine.

"Yes, I am. How can I help you?" replied the woman.

"My name's Kimiko and I am here for the job position mentioned in the flyer," replied Yue as she showed the woman the flyer in her hand.

"So…, you want to be a bouncer?" Kyine asked skeptically.

"Yes. I believe that I would be a perfect candidate to fill the position."

"What makes you say that?"

Yue raised her right arm and gently moved her right hand to the left, lowered it and flexed out her fingers. As she did this, Kyine's right hand moved up and moved over more to the right. Her hand then placed the glass down and released it. All of this, was done against Kynie's will. Kynie turned to look at Kimiko for an explanation.

"As you just saw and felt; I'm a waterbender. The human body is made up of seventy percent of water, so if anyone starts a drunken brawl in here; I can quite literally throw them out," Yue explained.

Kyine stared at the young woman in front of her with a thoughtful expression on her face as she weighted the pros and cons of hiring this young bender. After what seemed like a few hours, but was really a few seconds, Kyine asked, "How soon can you start work?"

"I can start right now," replied Yue eagerly. "Does this mean I've got the job?"

"Nice enthusiasm. Yes, you've got the job, if you pass your week hiring probation. You'll start tomorrow and work four nights a week. Your shift will be from eight at night to four in the morning. You'll make four gold pieces an hour and whenever you do throw someone out, you're free to take whatever money they have on them. Understand?"

Yue nodded her head, indicating that everything was understood and fine with her.

"Now, all the bouncers wear a uniform. Your pants can be whatever you want, though I recommend they be something strong and long lasting. Now, the shirt will be the same as the other bouncers. It's black and identifies you as the security of this bar. I've got a few spare shirts in my office upstairs. Come on, I'll get you one." Kyine then came out from behind the bar and walked up the stairs to her office with Yue walking behind her.

"This is the employee break room," Kyine said pointing out the door to the left. They then walked a little further down the hall and came to a stop in front of a door that Kyine took out a key to open. "This is my office."

Once the door was open, Kyine and Yue stepped inside and Yue saw that the office was as plain as the rest of the building. There was a desk and a couple of filing cabinets. The room was also quite clean. Kyine opened one of the bottom drawers and pulled out a black tunic that was part of the bouncer's uniform. The tunic was black and on the left breast of it was the name of the bar etched in green. On the sleeves and the back of the shirt was the kanji for security.

"Try this one." Kyine said as she tossed the tunic to Yue.

Yue got the tunic on, but it was too small for her and felt restricted. "I don't think this one will work," replied Yue, handing the tunic back to Kyine.

"Alright, here's a bigger one." Kyine said as she handed a bigger tunic to Yue.

The second one fit much better. "This one works nicely."

"Okay then, here's two more of the same size. These are your work uniform shirts and you are to wear them when you are working. Now, I want you here about thirty minutes early tomorrow night, so I can introduce you to the girls and your fellow bouncer."

"Alright, Mrs. Kyine." Yue replied as she took off the tunic and grabbed the others.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow night then." Kyine said as they left the office.

Yue then left Virgo and headed back to her apartment to put her uniform tunics away and to train some.

'How long does it take him to get back?' Jin asked herself. It had been several minutes since the Avatar had flown to the Outer Wall, took notice of the drill and then flew back.

A moment later, Jin felt the earth rumble and looked over the canyon to the Avatar and his team riding a wave of earth towards the Outer Wall. Taking a closer look, Jin saw that the woman who had been pregnant earlier was now carrying a newborn baby. 'Did she give birth?' Jin asked herself. 'I hope everything went okay for the birth.'

Once they were out of sight, Jin began to make her way after them, to hide in the shadows and see how the Avatar would handle stopping the drill.

Zuko and Iroh sat on a bench at the bottom of a tall pillar waiting to board the train to Ba Sing Se. Several groups had already gone ahead, but the two firebenders waited.

"That really was a stupid thing you did with your tea, Uncle." Zuko finally spoke after a long wait.

"The tea was cold. It needs to be warm to hot. How was I to know someone would see it?" Iroh replied.

Earlier, Iroh had bought some tea that turned out to be cold and heated it discreetly with his firebending, by raising the liquid's temperature. Unfortunately, this had been noticed by Jet, who had tried to recruit Zuko to join his Freedom Fighters. Zuko had refused, seeing how Jet seemed slightly hostile about firebenders. So far, they were lucky that Jet hadn't said anything, but one could never be too careful.

"What's the plan, once we're inside the city?" Zuko asked.

"First, we will need to meet my contact. Then, we need to adjust to city life. After that, I suggest we enjoy this rest as long as we can," replied Iroh.

"Rest? What rest, uncle?"

"Nephew, you have been running as hard and as fast as you can ever since your banishment. Now, while I am glad you've seen that there are more important things in life than capturing the Avatar, you have been tasked with an unforgiving burden from the elder spirit of fire."

"I can complete that task," Zuko replied with a slight scoff.

"Can you? Can you really kill your sister and father?" Iroh asked.

Unable to reply, Zuko just stared ahead in silence. The silence didn't last long as a voice called out, "All aboard to Ba Sing Se." Zuko and Iroh stood up and made their way onto the train, where Iroh grabbed them a seat next to a young couple with a newborn baby. The train then gave a slight jolt as it began to move towards the city.

'That's it?' Jin thought to herself in a deadpanned voice. 'Why didn't he just bend the earth and push the drill back? Or gee, break it?' Jin had spent nearly all day just outside the Outer Walls, watching the Avatar's team take down the drill. At the end of it all, Jin was not impressed with what she saw. Instead of forcing the invading Fire Nation drill back or tipping it over, the Avatar and his friends decided to go inside the drill to cut through the metal bracers; all while risking getting captured. This had taken them so long, that the drill was able to break through the Outer Wall.

'I know my metalbending isn't strong enough yet to have split that drill, but even I know it would have been better to use my current metalbending skills to push it back all the way to Serpent's Lake.' Jin thought to herself as she turned to earthbend herself back home.

'I guess the elder spirits really do need our help. If that's the current Avatar, we are all going to die before this war is over.'

Zuko and Iroh calmly walked through the streets of Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring. They were in the Firma District walking towards an apartment complex called, Deim Apartment Complex. When they arrived at the apartment complex, Iroh and Zuko made their way inside and knocked on the manager's door.

The door opened after a moment, revealing a young woman. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties and was of an average height. She had long mousy brown hair, tied back into four braids. "Welcome Mushi, Lee, I've been expecting you. I am Amrita," Said the woman. "Fong sent a letter ahead of you," Amrita explained after seeing Zuko's look of suspicion.

Zuko and Iroh walked into Amrita's office and sat down in the chairs in front of the desk. Amrita closed the door and sat behind her desk. Once seated, she began to speak, "I have an apartment reserved for the two of you. Fong paid for the first four days, so the two of you or one of you will need to get job soon to continue to pay for it." She then opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out a slip of paper. "Here's a few places, that I know of, that are looking for workers," Amrita said as she handed Iroh the paper. When Iroh took the paper, Amrita took out two keys and handed them to Zuko and Iroh. "These are the keys to your apartment. You will be living in apartment 208."

The two exiles bowed and left the office heading for their new apartment as it was getting late and it had been ages since they had gotten a decent night's sleep.

"I would just like to say, good work out there today Team Avatar," said Sokka as he, Aang, Toph, and Katara looked out across the barren land and watched the sunset. Well, everyone except Toph that is. It had been hard work stopping the massive drill from the Fire Nation, but they did it.

"Enough with the Team Avatar already," Katara said with an exasperated sigh. "No matter how many times you say it, it won't catch on."

"How about the 'Boomerang Squad', see it's got 'Aang' in it." Sokka explained. "Boomer-Aang," he continued as he patted Aang's head.

"I kind of like that one," replied the young Avatar, offering his opinion on the group name.

"Let's talk about this on our way to the city," Katara said as she began to walk away.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to get into the city until tomorrow." replied an approaching voice.

The young group looked to see General Sung walking towards them.

"What do you mean 'we won't be able to get into the city until tomorrow'?" Sokka asked the general.

"The trains stop running to the Outer Wall when the sun sets. In fact, the last train left about fifteen minutes ago," explained General Sung. "The next train won't arrive until eight forty-five tomorrow morning. You're all more than welcome to sleep here in the bunks."

"I guess we wait until tomorrow to get into the city," Katara said with dejected sigh.

"Come on, Sugar Queen, let's hit the sack already. I'm tired," spoke a drowsy Toph.

Team Avatar followed the general and made their way towards the Outer Wall's sleeping barracks for the Earth Kingdom Army.

The sun shone brightly in the sky above as Zuko and Iroh walked walk down a busy market street. Zuko turned his head as Iroh caught up to him. Taking note of the large vase and bright flowers, Zuko arched his eyebrow at his uncle's odd purchase.

Seeing Zuko's look, Iroh spoke saying, "I just want our new place to look nice in case someone beings home a lady friend." As though to emphasis his point, Iroh gently nudged Zuko with his elbow.

"This place feels like a prison. How can people make a life for themselves here?" Zuko asked with a slightly depressing tone as he looked around at the poor conditions of Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring.

"Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not. Please nephew, try to let yourself live some while we are here." Iroh implored. "I doubt you'll have much of a chance once we leave," added the retired general. For both exiles knew their stay in the city would be a short one.

"I'll try uncle. For you, I will try," Zuko replied humbly.

Iroh smiled contently for a moment before breaking out into a grin. "Good. Now come on, I found us some jobs and we start this afternoon."

"What sort of job, Uncle?" Zuko asked, curious about their coming employment.

"Oh, just this little shop near our apartment." Iroh explained off-handedly.

With a mental shrug to himself, Zuko continued walking down the street with Iroh.

As the carriage slowly trotted down the road, Aang could help but feel slightly uneasy due to the woman sitting across from him, Katara, and Toph. 'I don't know what it is, but there is something wrong with Joo-Dee. No one smiles that much. Not even me and I'm the Avatar,' Aang thought to himself. 'There's something wrong here. Something's wrong with this city.'

Zuko looked around at the drab walls of the small tea shop he was in. 'It had to be a tea shop. Of all the places for uncle to get us jobs, it has to be a freaking tea shop.' Zuko thought to himself with a slight undertone of anger. The slight upside, was that he wouldn't have to do any of the brewing only serving the tea.

"Well, you certainly look like official tea servers," said Pao, a thin middle-aged man who owned the tea shop. "How do you feel?"

"I feel ridiculous," Zuko replied, glancing down at his work apron.

Next to Zuko, Iroh was in the midst of trying desperately to tie his apron's stings together. "Uh, does this possibly come in a larger size?"

"I have some extra string in back," Pao replied as he poured two cups of tea. "Here have some tea while you wait." Pao handed the two cups to tea to Zuko and Iroh, before walking to the back for the extra string.

Iroh took a small sip of the tea before quickly pulling it away in disgust. "This tea is nothing more than hot leaf juice!" he proclaimed.

"Uncle, that's what all tea is," Zuko commented with an exasperated sigh.

"How can a member of my own family, say something so horrible?" Iroh then picked up the kettle and headed to the window with it. "We'll have to make some major changes around here," Iroh said as he threw the hot leaf juice out.

Zuko simply rolled his eyes and took a sip of the tea, from his own cup. Upon tasting it, Zuko decided that his Uncle might have a point. Any tea he had been severed on his ship was never as bad as what he had just tasted.

Yue walked calmly down the streets heading towards Virgo, for her first night of work. She was wearing a pair of durable dark brown trousers and her work tunic. As requested by, Kyine, she was showing up early to get settled in. Yue arrived at Virgo a couple of minutes later and walked right in. Looking around, she saw Kyine behind the bar once again and this time three girls sweeping and wiping down tables.

"Kimiko, you're here. Good." Kyine said from across the room. The girls glanced over to see whom Kyine was talking to and took notice of Yue.

Yue walked over towards Kyine saying, "You said be here early, so I am."

"I'll introduce you to the waitresses first." Kyine then turned her head towards the three girls cleaning. "Girls, come over here for a moment."

The three young girls walked to bar and stood in front of Yue. The girl directly in front of her was a bit taller than Yue, by about half a head. She had a dark skin tone and oddly light brown hair. The girl to Yue's right was about Yue's height and had black hair to contrast beautifully with her pale complexion. The last girl, on Yue's left, was petite and a bit young looking. She had a slight tan to go with her long brown hair.

The girl in front of you is Lieu. On her left is, Nu. The girl on Lieu's right is, Tien," Kyine said introducing each girl. Kyine then turned to the three young girls and said, "This is Kimiko. Tonight's her first night with us."

"Oh, will she be a waitress too?" Tien asked in a chipper voice.

"Of course not. Can't you tell by what she's wearing?" came the stressed voice of Lieu.

"Hey, don't be rude to Tien, Lieu," barked the hard voice of Nu.

Either used to this or just not caring, Kyine continued on as though nothing happened. "No, Kimiko won't be a waitress. She's the new bouncer."

"She doesn't look like much," Lieu commented.

While normally, Nu would chastise her fellow co-worker, even she had to agree.

"I can assure you, she's good for the job," Kyine replied. "Now, the three of you get back to work. We open for business soon."

The three nodded their heads and went back to cleaning.

Kyine then turned to Yue and said, "Come on up to the break room, I'll introduce you to your co-worker." Kyine then walked upstairs, with Yue quickly fallowing after her.

Kyine opened the door to the break room and walked over to the room's only occupant, a tall muscular man. The man easily topped six feet and was most likely one of the tallest people Yue had ever met. He had brown hair tied back into a short ponytail at the base of his neck.

"Hey Dak-Ho," Kyine called getting his attention. "This is the girl I was telling you about, Kimiko." The bar owner continued nodding her head back to Yue.

"Hey," Dak-Ho called in greeting to Yue in a deep voice.

"Hello," Yue replied pleasantly.

"Listen, since it's her first night, I'm going to have her watch the door for the first four hours. The remaining three will be spent inside and the last hour, she'll join you in helping to close down the shop."

"Alright," he replied, nodding his head.

Kyine turned back to Yue, saying, "Now, I'll show you where you'll be working for the next four hours."

The two women walked back downstairs and went over to the entrance of the bar.

"Okay, you see how there are two entrances to get into the bar?" Kyine asked.

"Yes. There's the entrance you open to come in from the outside, were you enter into this small foyer. Then, there's the actual entrance into the bar itself."

"Correct. Now, your job is to be stationed in the foyer; sitting on that chair," Kyine said as she pointed to a chair that was on a slightly raised short-walled platform. "When watching the door, you are to look intimidating and keep riff-raff out as best you can. Now, if someone looks like they're just going to cause straight up trouble; you can refuse them entrance into the bar. If you hear a fight break out inside, you are to abandon your post and rush inside to help. Understand?"

Yue nodded her head in understanding.

"Okay, now in about four hours Dak-Ho will come out to relieve you. You then go inside and basically walk around look intimidating and help with some of the basic running of the bar like wiping down the tables and such."

"Is there anything else?"

"Nope, that's pretty much it. It's now time to open, so go ahead and sit on down," replied Kyine and she went and opened the front door; pulling it all the way open and leaving it open to indicate that the bar was now open to the public.

Zuko was lying down on the apartment's couch relaxing after his first afternoon as a waiter.

"Would you like some tea?" Iroh asked from the small kitchen across from the couch.

"We've been working in a tea shop all day," replied Zuko with a sigh. "I'm sick of tea!"

"Sick of tea?" Iroh questioned with fake shock lacing his voice. "That's like being sick of breathing." Iroh then turned around and began to rummage through the drawer.

'Well, for the first few days after that attempted assassination by those pirates Zhao hired, I was sick of breathing.' Zuko thought to himself. It had been a pain filled couple of days after that incident. Zhao, a former admiral of the Fire Nation Navy, tried to have Zuko killed all on the assumption that Zuko was the thief known as the Blue Spirit. Sure Zhao was right, but at the time he had no proof.

"Have you seen our spark rocks?" Iroh asked, cutting through Zuko's thoughts of the former admiral.

"No, I haven't." Zuko replied.

Iroh shut the door and walked towards the entrance of the apartment. He stepped out for a moment and upon his quick return was holding two small emerald spark rocks. "I borrowed our neighbor's, such kind people." Iroh explained as he started a small fire to heat the water in the kettle. Normally, with them both being firebenders, they would make the fire themselves, but Iroh and Zuko were not fools. They knew someone was watching them and had a good idea who it was.

'You'll have to do better than that, Jet.' Zuko thought a little smugly to himself. Zuko stood up from the couch and went into the adjoining room to turn in early for the evening.

Yue yawned loudly as she stretched, popping the kinks out of her back. It was hard to be intimidating when one kept yawning every few minutes. Luckily, her first four hours were almost over. The Northern Water Tribe princess was surprised when people kept coming in after eleven; she never knew people in the city stayed up so late. Just as she was relaxing back into the chair a loud crash was heard inside the bar.

Yue sprang to her feet, jumping over the small wall surrounding the chair and rushed inside. Yue saw three drunken guys trying to overtake Dak-Ho. Now, while not doing a spectacular job of putting the one bouncer down, they themselves weren't going down.

Knowing her time to act was now, Yue ran into the fray. The closest drunk to her was in the midst of lifting a barstool above his head to smash down onto the back of Dak-Ho's unprotected head. Coming up behind the man, Yue grabbed the back of the man's shirt and hoisted herself up by burying her left foot into the small of his back.

Feeling someone grabbing the back of his shirt and start to choke him, the man turned back just in time to see the tanned fist of an angry blue-eyed white haired woman slam into the side of his skull and send him crashing to the ground.

Yue looked up from her downed opponent at the two remaining drunks. She had knocked the barstool guy out with a well controlled burst of freezing waterbending on his brain. It didn't kill, just knocked people out and gave extremely bad headaches to the victim.

Seeing his friend go down the drunkard, not trying to choke Dak-Ho, decided to take on the busty Samaritan. Grabbing the bottle by the neck, he flipped it over and smashed it against a nearby table's corner. "Take this, you slut!!" He roared out drunkenly and charged.

Seeing the deranged idiot wielding a broken bottle come at her, Yue leaned far back as he took a weakened swing at her. Just as the sharp glass tips were passing over her stomach, Yue shot her foot out hard at the man's joining of his legs and was rewarded with a pleasantly shrill cry of pain. As Yue balanced back onto her feet, she pulled her fist back and slammed another burst of freezing waterbending into the bottle man's skull knocking him out as well.

Yue looked over at Dak-Ho and saw that he had subdued his own opponent into unconsciousness as was busy empting the money from the man's pockets. Looking down her own fallen opponents, Yue began searching their pockets for cash and turned a good profit of a hundred gold pieces, thirty-two silver pieces, and twenty-three bronze pieces. After stowing the money away in her money pouch, Yue and Dak-Ho dragged the three men to the foyer.

Just as Dak-Ho was about to toss the first man out, Yue spoke up and said, "Hold on a moment. I've got an idea." Wondering what the new girl's idea was, he turned around to see Yue taking off one of the drunk's shirts. "Help me get their clothes off."

"Why?" Dak-Ho asked her; he wasn't one for undressing another guy, no matter the circumstances.

"We're going to throw them out naked. This way, they'll be arrested for public indecency," explained Yue.

Seeing the evil reasoning, Dak-Ho agreed and began to help her.

After the long process of removing the clothes from the unconscious drunks, Dak-Ho turned to Yue and asked, "How do we toss them out, now?"

"Like this," replied Yue as she raised her arms in focus. She brought her arms up to her chest and then thrust them forward fast and hard. As she moved her arms, the men rose into the air and then flew out of the door.

"How did you do that?" Dak-Ho asked in surprise as he watched the drunks sail off into the distance.

"I did that with waterbending. The human body is filled with water, so it's simple to do," explained Yue.

"Nice show there," spoke a voice from behind them. Yue and Dak-Ho turned to see Kyine standing behind them with a small smirk on her face. "Those three have been causing trouble here for a while, but after what you just did, Kimiko, I doubt they'll be back for a long time."

"Um…, thanks?" Yue replied, unsure as how she should take the compliment.

"Come on, it's time for you to work inside now." Turning to Dak-Ho she added, "You got things covered up here?"

"Sure," he replied as he gathered the discarded clothes and dumped them in the trash for disposal.

Turning back to Yue, Kyine said, "Follow me."

Yue followed her boss back into the bar and went right up to the bar.

"After seeing what you did, I've decided to make you a full employee; your hiring probation is now over." Kyine began. "Since you're now a full employee, you get to choose a codename like the other bouncers. The only ones you can't use are bear, bull, hawk, and rhino."

Contemplating for a moment, Yue replied, "I pick serpent."

"Why pick serpent?" Kyine asked not seeing the connection.

"I've heard of the giant sea serpent that inhabits Serpent Lake. So, I picked that codename as I'm also a waterbender," explained Yue.

"Good choice. Now, it's time for you to start your inside work, by first cleaning up the mess that fight made. You'll find the broom, mop and bucket in the corner."

"Alright," Yue replied and began to turn around, but quickly found her face being pressed into two large black breasts.

"Thank you so much, for getting rid of those creeps, Kimiko," replied the owner who was hugging Yue to death.

Yue was able to look up from the cleavage to see that it was Lieu, hugging her. "You're welcome?" Yue replied with a heavy blush on her face, it was strange being hugged like this. It felt nice and pleasant.

"I think you broke Kimiko, Lieu," came the childish voice of Tien.

"Oh, sorry about that," replied Lieu as she released Yue in an embarrassed laugh and quickly removed herself by going to wait on the furthest customer from Yue.

Before Yue could get a word in, Tien hugged Yue by squeezing her tightly. "Thank you, Kimiko." She cried before going back to waiting on people.

"You're wondering, why they acted like that aren't you?" asked a monotone voice next to her.

Yue looked to see the last waitress, Nu, standing next to her. "Yeah, I am," replied Yue.

"Well, Tien's always like that. She's friendly to everyone. I've yet to see her not be friends with someone. You'd have to be a truly evil person for her not to like you. Granted, I've never seen her warm up to someone as quickly as I have with you," Nu began. "Now, Lieu, is a bit different. That second guy you knocked out as been giving Lieu some trouble here at work, so she normally wasn't happy the past couple of months. But, now that you've probably gotten rid of the guy for good, she may start being lot happier."

"Oh, well. I was just trying to do the right thing, but I'm glad she's happy to."

"Yeah. So, I'll go ahead and offer my thanks too."

"You want to hug me too?"

"No," replied Nu. She then leaned over and gently kissed Yue on her left cheek. "Thanks." Nu said as she broke the kiss.

"Why did you do that?" Yue asked as a small blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Because I wanted to," replied Nu simply. The young waitress then turned and went back to waiting on the customers.

Yue stood next to the bar in a slightly pleasant daze and she let the strange butterflies in her stomach settle.

"Serpent!! That mess ain't going to clean itself. Get to it." Barked Kyine from behind her and bringing her out of her daze.

"Yes, ma'am," replied Yue in a rush as she ran to grab the broom and start sweeping the glass.

'This is not how I imagined my first day at my first job would turn out,' the former spirit thought to herself.

This was really starting to get annoying. All day he had watched them and not once did they ever look like they were going to firebend. How? How could they not firebend? He was sure the old man was a firebender, he saw him with the hot cup of tea. Since, Lee was his nephew, he had to be a firebender too.

"Jet, we need to talk," came the stressed voice of Smellerbee from behind him.

The former freedom fighter leader known as Jet turned to look at his long time companions, Smellerbee and Longshot. "Oh good, it's you guys. Where have you both been? I could use some help with surveillance here." Jet said as they walked up next to him.

"We've been talking and we think you're becoming obsessed with this," Smellerbee began slowly. This wasn't going to be a delightful conversation. "It's not healthy."

"Oh, really? Do you both think this?" Jet questioned his friends with a slight rise of his eyebrow.

As usual, Longshot never spoke, but he put a hand on Smellerbee's shoulder in a clear sign of support. "Jet, we came here to make a fresh start, but you won't let this go. Even though there's no real proof!"

"Well, maybe if you guys would help me," Jet countered for his lack of evidence.

"Jet, you have got to stop this." Smellerbee said as she grabbed her hair in frustration.

"Maybe, you've forgotten why we need to start over. Maybe, you've forgotten about how the Fire Nation left us all homeless. How they wiped out all the people we loved." Jet replied with anger in his voice. "If you don't want to help me, fine then. I'll get the evidence on my own." Jet exited the alley and headed across the street to Pao's Family Tea House.

"Jet, don't," Smellerbee cried in a low panicked voice. She knew her old friend was going to cause trouble and it wouldn't end well for him. She had been around the city and took notice of how people reacted to those people all wearing the same dark green robes and how no one dared to mention the war in any sort of fashion. She tried to reach after him and drag him back, but was stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder. She turned her head back to look at her boyfriend's face and saw him shake his head.

"You're right Longshot, it's his decision to go down this path. But, it still doesn't make it any easier. We're his oldest friends," replied Smellerbee. "I never thought our friendship would end like this."

The young couple looked across the alley just in time to see the door to the tea house door burst open from Jet going through it. Their friend was quickly followed out by Lee, a refugee they met on the ferry ride over. The clash of their swords filled the air, but even that wasn't enough to drown out Jet's voice as he accused Lee about being a firebender.

From what Smellerbee could see, Lee wasn't a firebender at all; just a very good swordsmen. 'Impressive, no one's been able to keep up with Jet for this long without getting a cut before,' she thought to herself. Very carefully, Smellerbee and Longshot moved with the gathering crowed. Making sure to keep watch on the fight, but also making sure Jet wouldn't call on them for help. He chose this and he needed to accept it.

"Drop your weapons," called a hard angry voice over the fighting.

Smellerbee looked towards the direction of the voice and felt her heart skip a beat. 'Oh crap, it's them,' she thought to herself. Standing in the street were two men wearing the dark green robes that she saw people cower before.

Lee immediately released his hold on his weapon, but Jet kept his as he declared Lee and his Uncle to be firebenders. Lee's uncle, the tea shop owner, and the city guards were all able to counter this and all Jet could do was yell that they were firebenders. The men approached Jet and when he showed resistance, they easily took him down by force. As they dragged Jet to the back of an armored carriage, all he kept doing was dig himself deeper into his hole by shouting that firebenders were in Ba Sing Se.

As the carriage rode out of sight down the darkened street, Smellerbee and Longshot looked after it for a moment before walking away with the crowed. 'We'll try to find you Jet,' Smellerbee vowed to herself.

The problem, was how to find someone in a city this big, when you couldn't ask where the person was.

Next Chapter: Fight Club

Well, there's the fourth chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading it, please leave a review. At last count I've only gotten eleven reviews. Which begs the question, where are all the Zuko/Jin fans at? In case you're wondering Zuko and Jin will meet in chapter six. Chapter six will be covering their date from Jin's point of view. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can; because by the end of next month until the end of August I'll be extremely busy.

In the meantime, what would you like to see?